EU Parliament has less power than under Tsars

Unfortunately in his eagerness to damn UKIP, Gerard McCabe has let a number of errors slip in to his letter.

Firstly he claims UKIP’s MEPs have received over £1m in salary and expenses over the last five years. This is obviously untrue.

Members of the European Parliament do not receive “expenses”, they all get the same fixed allowance to pay for staff and offices which is not paid to the MEP while they are paid the same salary as their Westminster counterparts.

Mr McCabe goes on to complain about the attendance of the party’s MEPs, but he might like to explain what he thinks is achieved by turning up to a Parliament that cannot initiate or stop legislation which is proposed by the unelected European Commission, the real power in the EU, where hardly anyone gets to speak and where votes are frequently not even counted properly.

The farcical European Parliament has less power than the Russian Parliament under Tsar Nicholas II. Unlike Mr McCabe UKIP voters understand this which is why they support the hard work the MEPs they elected do in this country.

Finally, the deputy leader of UKIP is Paul Nuttall, not Neil Hamilton.

With these misconceptions cleared up, I look forward to receiving Gerard’s support in May.